His lips looked a little blue. “Let’s get this thing going,” he shuddered.
I took the chalk, and began to draw the symbols on the wall above the water. By the time I was finished, the rest of the group had joined Jas on the ledge. Their chattering teeth greeted me when I turned away from my drawings.
“Who’s got the non-coated knife?” I inquired. Lillian readily handed it to me, and I met everyone’s eyes one at a time. “Everybody ready?”
Though they weren’t the most enthusiastic bunch, no one protested. I took the blade to my thumb. A hiss slipped between my lips as it pierced my skin, and the blood bubbled to the surface.
“Aperuerit ianuam introibo,” Alec had recited to me in the dream last night. “I believe it loosely translates to ‘open sesame.’”
I chanted those words now as blood dripped from my finger. The clear water at my feet darkened to an unnatural crimson as it churned with my blood. Water from elsewhere in the cave rushed toward us, and lapped against the wall below the symbols. The group took collective steps back from the flood as it collected at our feet, and spiraled into a whirlpool.
The roar of the rushing water spiked my fear. I dreaded what came next.
Nathan’s hand found mine. His voice was drowned out by the rumbling, but I didn’t need to hear him to know what he said. It was time.
I nodded my head at the others. “Go!”
We had discussed this step earlier. I needed to jump into the whirlpool last, otherwise it would close and leave the others behind. Now that they had seen it, I suspected that some of them wouldn’t mind being left behind.
They proved themselves far braver than I already knew, and stepped toward the swirling opening. Jared and Lillian took the leap first, jumping in together, hand in hand. Bruce, Jas, and Kira followed closely behind. The five of them tumbled around the whirlpool like giant goldfish flushed down a toilet. Nathan’s gaze held mine as we stepped forward together.
My feet hit the water, and the current took me. Though I didn’t fear death, the sensation of drowning paralyzed me as we swirled around and around, dropping lower and lower into the churning water. The few times my head broke the surface, I gulped small breaths of air before being submerged again. Nathan’s hand never loosened its grip on mine as we spiraled toward the bottom of the pool.
The water suddenly calmed, and we floated freely, though still submerged at an unknown depth. My body collided with Nathan’s, and I felt him tug me toward the surface . . . or what I hoped was the surface. Already, my lungs burned, and I longed to fill them with oxygen. I pinched my lips together, against the urge to take a satisfying breath.
A pair of legs bumped into me from behind, but I couldn’t determine who they belonged to in the murky water. With a sudden jerk, they were ripped away from me. The current took Nathan next, and yanked his hand out of my grasp. My mouth involuntarily opened, and I choked on a mouthful of water as I was wrenched forward next, legs kicking ahead of me.
I was reminded of a water park ride I had once ridden with Callie—one filled with sudden twists, and turns, and drops. But with no raft, my head submerged under water, and no end in sight, this ride was far from fun.
My feet hit a rock wall, and my mouth opened to cry out from the jolt it sent up my legs. I pushed away from the wall as the current reclaimed me, now tossing me head first down the watery tunnel.
The water in my lungs burned.
Air. I needed air.
A bright light filtered through my eyelids, and I hoped it signaled the end of the journey. My mouth pressed together to stop myself from taking the breath I needed too soon. Then the feeling of free falling through empty space overcame me. My arms and legs flailed as I plummeted through a warm wall of water.
There was a brief relief, and then a splash as I hit water. I reached out for something to grab onto as I kicked my legs beneath me. I broke the surface and sucked in a gulp of air, only to choke on the water that had already filled my lungs.
Arms wrapped around me from behind, stopping me from going under again. My head dropped against Bruce’s shoulder in relief as I sputtered.
“You’re okay,” he assured me. “I’ve got you.”
He tucked me to his side, and pulled me effortlessly through the water with his big arms. I searched for signs of the others over his shoulder. I spotted Nathan and Jared as they each looped an arm around a limp bikini-clad body, and followed us to the nearby bank.
Bruce pushed me up first. Every breath I took resulted in a fit of coughing, and I dropped my head between my knees in an attempt to control it. Behind me, I heard Bruce assist Nathan and Jared.
“Give her to me,” Bruce offered.
I swiveled to look over my shoulder as Bruce hauled Kira’s lifeless body onto the stone bank beside me. Blood covered her face from a deep gash in her forehead. Her eyes were open, but stared blankly into the empty space above her.
My hand clamped over my mouth as Jas appeared at my side. Blood dripped from his chin, from the sizable cut in his lip. His head dropped with a sigh when he realized that she was dead.
“She hit that wall head first,” he offered in explanation.
“We’re missing Lillian,” Nathan coughed. He had pulled himself to the edge of the bank, and turned to look out over the water. Blood oozed from his shoulder, from the scratches that marked his skin.
That damn rock wall had gotten all of us. Kira, unfortunately, had taken a fatal dive into it. Had Lillian suffered the same fate?
I moved around Jas, crawling toward the water’s edge to look for her. The large black pool was calm. Steep rock walls lined the perimeter. There was no waterfall, as I had imagined falling from. No opening above from what I could see.
Where had we come from? Where could Lillian be?
As we all searched, Lillian silently floated to the surface in the middle of the pool. She came up peacefully, far too quietly for someone who needed air after being submerged for so long. Nathan saw her at the same time I did, and jumped into the water after her. Jared followed, and together they pulled her limp body back to us.
Not another, I thought as they hauled her onto the bank.
“Please, don’t let her be dead,” I muttered under my breath.
“She’s not breathing,” Jared declared. He immediately lowered his head, and delivered two short breaths into her. I watched as her chest rose slightly. Then Nathan’s entwined hands compressed the center of her chest, forcing her heart to pump.
It was like reliving my own drowning months ago. Nathan had done this to me then. I had watched it in a dream. I had woken up; I had survived.
“Please, Lillian,” I whispered as Jared and Nathan repeated the cycle. As an afterthought, I added, “Alec, help.”
He was at my side instantly. His head swiveled as he took in the scene around us. “She’ll be okay,” he finally offered.
“How do you know?” I whispered so as not to distract the guys.
“The Collector isn’t here.”
“Collector?”
“He collects all the souls,” Alec explained quickly. “Kira’s is already gone.”
I nodded, and waited. And waited. Two more breaths from Jared . . .
Lillian suddenly coughed, bringing an end to the smoldering silence. She rolled onto her side, fisting handfuls of stone as she struggled to catch her breath.
“Once she’s able, you need to move,” Alec advised.
Then he was gone. I wished he could stay, to walk us through this, but he had already explained to me that he couldn’t. He couldn’t take the passage again. It was up to us to follow his map, and find our own way.
No one wanted to leave Kira, where she lay dead on the hard ground, but we had no choice. We orchestrated a sort of burial, by covering her body under a mound of rocks. Then, once Lillian had her feet under her, and we had all redressed into dry clothes, we left.
The oval cave-like space we had emerged into was surrounded by slick black rock on all sides.
The only opening was a small crack in one corner. We slipped into the crevice one by one. Nathan went first, and I followed. After several feet, I was forced to continue on my hands and knees.
It was dark, and tight. Reminiscent of the vision I’d had of my mother. Only I didn’t sense something hunting me now. I felt entirely alone. Only Nathan’s voice from ahead, the occasional graze of Lillian’s hand on my foot, and the grunts of agony that echoed off the walls, let me know I had company.
“I see some light,” Nathan announced. “Almost there.”
“Thank God,” Jared muttered from somewhere behind me.
I heard a pained grunt, followed by a vehemently spoken curse. From the last person I expected to hear it from.
“Bruce, you okay?” I called.
“Just fine,” he returned.
He didn’t sound fine. This tunnel was tight for me. I couldn’t imagine how bad it was for Bruce.
I finally saw the light Nathan had mentioned. A moment later, I emerged from the tunnel with a sigh of relief. Coming to a stand beside Nathan, I saw it.
A thick cloud of fog enveloped us, and spread out in slowly moving, rolling waves. A deep reddish-orange glow far in the distance illuminated the two bodies of water that flowed toward us from the left, while a bright white glow illuminated the three separate rivers that flowed from the right. All five bodies of water met in the middle.
The six of us stood shoulder to shoulder on the bank overlooking the expansive lake. Through the fog, the sails of a ship were visible as it glided across the open water.
“That’s the ferry,” I pointed out.
Alec had told me about this part in detail. He had described the ferry as eerie. With its frayed sails, moss covered hull, and deck filled with the dead, I would have described it as terrifying.
“That’s disturbing,” Jared observed.
“We have to take that across?” Jas mused.
“Would you rather swim?” Nathan grunted.
The distance separating us from the other shore wasn’t swimmable. I couldn’t even see the bank on the other side. I couldn’t teleport us without visualizing it. We were stuck riding the ferry with the other souls arriving to the underworld.
I dug the coin from my bag, which Alec had insisted that we each bring. “Time to pay up.”
The ferry slowed at the dock as we stepped onto it. It creaked and groaned from the weight of all the souls awaiting passage. Around us hovered hundreds of the dead, lost in their own misery. Per Alec’s suggestions, we followed their lead. Heads down, faces blank, slow and sullen steps as we boarded the ferry by means of a creaky wooden ramp.
I followed Nathan, and held my breath as he placed his coin into the waiting hand of Charon—the ferryman. Tall and lanky, and adorned in a long black gown with a hood that obscured most of his face, he was quite intimidating. I held my breath, tensed and ready for battle, as he regarded Nathan.
With a nod, Charon ushered Nathan forward. A set of red eyes swung toward me. I kept my head down as I pressed my coin into Charon’s palm. My fingers brushed his during the transfer, and I flinched from the coolness of his skin. He didn’t seem to notice, and sent me shuffling along after Nathan. We waited near the back of the ferry for the rest of the group to join us.
Jared gave a low whistle. “That went surprisingly well.”
No one responded. We all knew the hardest part was yet to come.
The contrasting orange and white lights grew brighter as the ferry sliced through the water, and we drew closer to the gate to the underworld. Elysian Fields to the right, where the blessed and righteous spent their afterlife, and Tartarus to the left, where the evil were banished for an eternity of torture.
First we had to get past Cerberus, the gigantic three-headed watchdog at the entrance, pass through the Vale of Mourning, and find a way around the judges who awaited all souls inside. And that was all before we found a way to break into the palace from which Hades oversaw it all.
I never thought this was going to be easy. But now, I wondered why I had ever thought it would be possible.
Chapter 20
“Anyone think to bring a dog treat?” Jas whispered as we approached the gate.
Looming over us, sitting on its haunches and reaching three stories in height, was Hades’ watchdog. The three heads of Cerberus moved in all directions, missing nothing. One of the heads let out a toothy snarl, drawing the attention of the other two, who proceeded to snap at the snarling one. The sound of gnashing teeth—obviously big, sharp teeth—shot a ripple of fear down my spine.
The result was wobbly legs, and a tremor in my voice. “Alec said Cerberus will let us through,” I assured Jas—and myself. The thought of being torn to pieces by a massive three-headed dog was enough to fuel a shred of doubt.
“He’s there to keep souls in. Not keep us out,” Nathan added.
His hand brushed against mine briefly, as if to let me know that he was there. Standing shoulder to shoulder with dead souls, I had never been more grateful to be reminded that I didn’t belong here.
As promised, we slipped through the gate without as much as a growl from the beastly watchdog. However, the Vale of Mourning was much worse than I had anticipated.
The dead roamed freely there, taking their time moving along the dark and sullen path. The array of emotions that had followed them in death radiated from them in waves now. Some much stronger than others. Just by passing close to a soul, I was able to sense part of the story behind their deaths. I knew the murderers from the innocent, and the bitter from the accepting.
“You okay?” Nathan whispered.
So much sadness had brought tears to my eyes. I shook my head, because no, none of it was okay. Not the young girl victimized by her neighbor, not the man shot in an alley over ten dollars . . .
I drew in a ragged breath as a man passed me, the events of his death rolling off of him in vivid waves. Mass shooting . . . twenty dead . . . he had taken his own life. He had loved every minute of it.
“Kris?” Nathan shook me, pulling me back to him.
I watched the murderer slink away over Nathan’s shoulder. “Don’t you feel that?”
Nathan glanced at the rest of our group before shaking his head. “Feel what, Kris?”
“Can’t you see them?”
Nathan hesitated, and his eyes narrowed in concern. “What do you see, Kris?”
My gaze shifted to observe a young woman as she passed. The details of her brutal murder at the hands of her boyfriend crashed into me, and my hand shot to my mouth to stifle the gasp of horror. Bile rose in my throat, and I choked it down.
“We need to move out of here,” I heard Nathan tell the others.
Yes . . . yes, we did. The faster the better.
With Nathan’s help, I forced my feet forward. I pressed against his side, and buried my face to shield myself from some of the more troubling souls that I passed. Apparently, I was the only one who could see them, or feel their mourning.
After what felt like an eternity, the sadness tapered. The Vale expanded, giving us some distance from the souls passing through. Some of them had been stuck on The Vale for a very long time, lost and confused. Those who were in denial were the worst to encounter. By the time we reached the end of the trail, I was forcing myself to not run. I couldn’t get out of this place fast enough.
A shudder of relief rippled through me as we left The Vale of Mourning behind, and emerged into a dark, but massive, open space. The Judge’s Hall, according to Alec’s notes, appeared to go on and on forever. The shadowy outlines of souls stretched as far as I could see, though their emotions were not as distraught here as they had been on The Vale.
To the left, the orange-red glow of Tartarus was much brighter now. Just beyond the Judge’s Throne, between us and Tartarus, rose a steep mountain-sized rock formation made of the smoothest, shiniest black stone I had ever seen. Set at the top was the palace.
“There.” I nodded my head at the elaborate structu
re, which appeared to be chiseled out of the top part of the rock formation. Dark and massive, it looked exactly as I would expect the leader of the underworld’s sanctuary to look.
“Here we go.” Nathan laced his fingers with mine as we started toward the wall.
Getting to it would require walking through thousands of souls, which only I saw. Not something I wanted to repeat. Not to mention, we would have to pass close to the judges, and I didn’t know what would happen if they realized we didn’t belong here.
“Wait,” I called to Nathan, tugging on his hand. “I can see the top. I can teleport us.”
“I don’t want you to drain your energy,” Nathan returned.
“Climbing this thing . . .” I nodded my head at the steep wall. “That’ll expend a lot more energy, from all of us.”
“She’s got a point,” Jared noted. “Not to mention the likeliness of at least one of us slipping.”
Nathan pulled me to him with a nod. “Take me first.”
Of course, he would volunteer to step into Hades’ sanctuary first. His bravery was one of the things I both loved, and hated, about him.
I glanced at the lip of the cliff, and the sliver of flat ground visible at the top, before squeezing my eyes shut. My stomach hollowed, as it always did when I traveled, then a whoosh of hot air disrupted my hair and warmed my skin. My eyes popped open to find us standing on the cusp of a lava pit. It had been hidden from my view from the bottom, and we had nearly traveled into it.
I blew out a relieved breath as Nathan tilted his head at me.
“Sorry about that one,” I muttered before closing my eyes.
A tug on my hand kept me from traveling, and I looked to find Nathan staring at me. He nodded his head to the safe zone behind him, free of skin-melting lava. “Look around,” he suggested. “Maybe find a safer spot next time.”
Despite the danger, I found myself smiling. My toes lifted me up to brush a fleeting kiss to his lips. I stepped back, breaking all contact with him, before I traveled back to the base.
Jared’s transport went smoothly, as did Bruce’s. Lillian and I landed a tad too close to the ledge. We were both saved from a tumble off the edge by the hands that shot out to grab us.
Avenging Heart Page 21